A School For Glory
by BadgerLeopard
Summary: France, 1916. Private Joseph Mitchkin remembers when he was trained to fight in the Great War, only to suddenly remember a strange woman called Dorothy and to have a Scottish stranger who has a weird question mark umbrella enter his room. Who are the strangers? And why are they here? (Based on an unproduced TV story, featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace)
1. Part One

**A School For Glory**

**Part One**

**Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace**

_Surrey, 1915._

Joseph Mitchkin took one last look at the world he would never see, potentially, ever again. He had signed up to be trained at Hascombe House because he felt that he was doing the right thing. His father, Kenneth, was a firm patriot: for queen and country. That sort of thing.  
"Mitchie's meditating again!" came the laddish voice of Bradley Culshaw, a slightly older man, who sounded as if he spent his weekends playing football with his friends, before heading towards the nearest pub, and suckling on the sweet nectar that was commonly known as pale ale.  
"I just want to take a long look out into the countryside, Brad," Joseph said, "I'm not the sort of person who's arrogant and bullies others."  
"Yeah well, I just want to get started on the shooting!" Bradley yelled, his friends yelling in agreement.

After a few more moments of silent contemplation, the conscripts arrived at Hascombe House: it was a grand greyish building, which had managed to keep itself together over the many years that it had existed. A thick forest surrounded the house, cut in two by the road that their carriage was currently on.  
There was an army captain waiting for them, dressed in green uniform. He had eyes that had certainly seen conflict, and had grown weary of it over the years.  
"Come on, you lot," he yelled, "get out of there and get ready for your first day of training!"

_France, 1916._

Private Mitchkin woke up with fear. He could hear the booms and crashes of artillery fire, the screams of soldiers and the tension building. It had been only a year since he had left Hascombe House, having been trained to be the best soldier he could be, and yet he still felt like the ordinary person he used to be.  
But that was all about to change.

_Hascombe House, 1915._

Joseph had found his room and had begun to get comfortable when there was a knocking at the door.  
"Come in." he beckoned, to which the door opened, and a young woman with long brown hair strolled in. She was probably the maid.  
"Captain Parsons will be meeting with you downstairs in ten minutes." she said, with an accent that sounded as if she was from London.  
"Thank you. I didn't catch your name, by the way."  
"I'm Dorothy. And I'm not the maid: I'm simply here to keep an eye on you all and make sure that nothing bad happens."  
"I see. Where are you from exactly?"  
"Perivale. But when the war started, I decided to get a job here. If I can find some way of helping our boys, then I'd better do it."

_France, 1916._

Confused. That was what Private Mitchkin was feeling. He was confused. Why was he suddenly remembering something about a mysterious maid who came to see if he was okay?  
"Strange, isn't it?" called a slightly rasping scottish voice, "But you'll get used to it."  
"Who are you? Are you in my mind?"  
He felt a tap on his shoulder, which made him turn round in shock and see a short man wearing a brown jacket, question mark jumper and who carried a question mark umbrella.  
"How did you get in here?" he asked the stranger.  
"Oh, I get asked that so often, and yet it doesn't matter. What matters is this: do you wish to stay alive or not?"

_Hascombe House, 1915._

The conscripts had gathered in the gardens of Hascombe House, where a line of sandbags attached to wooden bars had been set up as targets.  
"Listen, you shall fire at the target and if you miss then you start again. Once you have completed the course, you will start again until you shoot the target perfectly in the heart. One shot can be all it takes to save someone's life. Do you understand me?" Captain Parsons yelled at them.  
"Yes sir." they answered, before taking their rifles and lining up, ready to begin the course.

And as this was going on, Ace was strolling round the house, holding a strange black box which bleeped in the presence of time energy. The reason why she was doing this was because the Doctor, back in the TARDIS, had told her that a temporal entity was operating both in 1915 and 1916. He had said that temporal entities possess a person and invade their mind in both the past and the future. If they failed to stop the entity, then the future may change and World War One may become even bloodier than it originally was. So, Ace was dropped off in 1915 and the Doctor landed in 1916.  
She was in the living quarters of Captain Parsons, and to her surprise, the tracker was bleeping wildly, which meant that the temporal entity must be near. Or, a trace of it. Her theory about a trace of a temporal entity was proven right when she found a glowing blue mark on one of the pillows.  
A mark in the shape of a head.

Captain Parsons smiled as he watched Joseph shoot at the sandbag targets successfully.  
Joseph would make an excellent soldier, and an excellent host. The blue entity inside him rose out of his body and into the air, unplugging itself from Parsons' timeline.  
At that moment, Ace ran out of the house and started to yell at the soldiers, telling them to run away and hide. But it was far too late: Joseph stared in shock at the ball of glowing blue light, as it flew into his body and invaded his mind.  
His past, his present and his future now belonged to the entity.  
The Doctor was in a lot of danger.

**To be continued...**


	2. Part Two

**A School For Glory**

**Part Two**

**Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace**

Captain Parsons smiled as he watched Joseph shoot at the sandbag targets successfully.  
Joseph would make an excellent soldier, and an excellent host. The blue entity inside him rose out of his body and into the air, unplugging itself from Parsons' timeline.  
At that moment, Ace ran out of the house and started to yell at the soldiers, telling them to run away and hide. But it was far too late: Joseph stared in shock at the ball of glowing blue light, as it flew into his body and invaded his mind.  
His past, his present and his future now belonged to the entity.  
The Doctor was in a lot of danger.

_France, 1916._

Private Mitchkin listened with amazement and confusion, as the little scottish stranger with the red umbrella explained what he was doing here and who he was. Apparently, the stranger, or "the Doctor" as he called himself, was a traveller from the future, who was hunting a strange parasite that was planning to cause some sort of time disruption.  
"I know that it may be hard to believe," the Doctor said, noticing the Private's puzzled expression, "but it is true. My friend, Ace, is one year in the past. Do you remember meeting her?"  
"There was a woman, yes. Her name was-"  
He stopped and smiled: his eyes glowed an eerie blue and his teeth reformed into sharp fangs.  
"Oh no." the Doctor simply said, before frantically running out of the Private's room.

_Hascombe House, 1915._

Ace, as well as the other conscripts, had taken refuge in the kitchen, and had barricaded the door and windows, so that Joseph could not get inside.  
"What the hell's happened to him?" Bradley Culshaw asked, scared about the man he had once bullied.  
"In simple terms, something bad," Ace answered, "but if you want an explanation, then shut up."  
"Alright then, if you're in charge now, what are we going to do next? Because we're locked up in the kitchen of an old country house, and there's a strange guy outside. You'd better have one hell of a good trick up your sleeve!"  
"She might not, but I certainly do." came a familiar voice: it was the Doctor. He was stood in the doorway leading to the cellar, umbrella in hand and with a smile on his face.  
"And what's your plan then, mister?"  
"I happen to have a machine that can get you safely back home. We need to evacuate everyone from the premises, so that Ace and I can deal with the time parasite ourselves."

Once everyone had entered the TARDIS, the Doctor closed the doors and activated the dematerialisation control, making the time rotor rise and fall, and the usual wheezing exit symphony that the TARDIS made begin.  
"This place is bleedin' huge!" Bradley remarked, gazing around in astonishment.  
This feeling was felt by all of the conscripts: after all, they were in the pinnacle of dimensional engineering, ploughing through space and time like a car driving along Oxford Street.  
"Where are you dropping them off?" Ace quizzed the Doctor, who was stood at the console, concentrating on driving.  
"I'll be landing at my house, in London." he enigmatically replied, before adding, "107 Baker Street, 1915."

The TARDIS landed, wheezing and howling itself into existence, inside 107 Baker Street. Nobody was at home, meaning that the arrival of a space-time machine from the future would not be noticed.  
The conscripts all emerged, followed by the Doctor and Ace, who left the doors open.  
"Now," the Doctor said, "this is my house. Hopefully you can get home from here. It was very nice to meet you all, but Ace and I have to go."  
The pair of them then re-entered the TARDIS, closing the doors behind them, and the TARDIS wheezed out of existence, shortly afterwards.  
"What a strange pair they were." Bradley commented, leaving the house and stepping out onto Baker Street.

_Hascombe House, 1915._

The Doctor and Ace emerged from the TARDIS, which was parked in the cellar once more, and made their way to the kitchen.  
"So, how was 1916?" Ace asked him, whilst they walked.  
"The usual. The trenches were disgusting, but I did make a few wrong landings on my way to you. I had to help the King of Jelvonia defeat some Ogrons and save Charles Darwin from being assassinated by Vorg the Great."  
She laughed at his strange humour, but something strange happened immediately afterwards: she fell over onto the floor. Blue marks started to appear all over her, just before Bradley Culshaw ran over to him and gazed sadly at the body.  
"Doc, she's dead. I know it must be hard for you, seeing as she's your wife or something, but you have to move on." he told him.  
"She wasn't dead. I was just talking to her, and then she became like that."  
"The time parasite killed her whilst we tried to get away in your TARDIS. Now we're trapped here, being picked off one by one by the parasite."  
He walked off, leaving the Doctor alone.  
"Something's wrong with time. There's only one way of destroying this paradox, and it seems that I have no choice but to change the past."  
Deciding that staring at his friend's body wouldn't save the web of time, he strolled back to the TARDIS and went inside, before the time ship dematerialised shortly afterwards.

**To be concluded...**


	3. Part Three

**A School For Glory**

**Part Three**

**Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace**

_Hascombe House, 1915._

The Doctor and Ace emerged from the TARDIS, which was parked in the cellar once more, and made their way to the kitchen.  
"So, how was 1916?" Ace asked him, whilst they walked.  
"The usual. The trenches were disgusting, but I did make a few wrong landings on my way to you. I had to help the King of Jelvonia defeat some Ogrons and save Charles Darwin from being assassinated by Vorg the Great."  
She laughed at his strange humour, but something strange happened immediately afterwards: she fell over onto the floor. Blue marks started to appear all over her, just before Bradley Culshaw ran over to him and gazed sadly at the body.  
"Doc, she's dead. I know it must be hard for you, seeing as she's your wife or something, but you have to move on." he told him.  
"She wasn't dead. I was just talking to her, and then she became like that."  
"The time parasite killed her whilst we tried to get away in your TARDIS. Now we're trapped here, being picked off one by one by the parasite."  
He walked off, leaving the Doctor alone.  
"Something's wrong with time. There's only one way of destroying this paradox, and it seems that I have no choice but to change the past."  
Deciding that staring at his friend's body wouldn't save the web of time, he strolled back to the TARDIS and went inside, before the time ship dematerialised shortly afterwards.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor was stood at the controls, planning how exactly he would change history. He already knew that the time parasite could exert its influence at any point in someone's life, so that meant he needed to go back and prevent Joseph Mitchkin from being born.  
In another life, a long time ago, he had faced the very same dilemma: when he had been sent back to eradicate the Daleks at their genesis, he thought he could never wipe out an entire species from history. He didn't have the right then, but this was just one person.  
"If only Ace was here." he muttered, sighing to himself.

_London, 1893._

Kenneth Mitchkin was not having a lucky day: he'd lost his job and he'd fallen into some mud, which had stained his clothes, face and hair a dark brown. He needed someone who could brighten his day whenever he was around them and someone who could make him smile.  
Unfortunately, he didn't get that someone: all he got instead was a short scottish man who carried an umbrella, even though it wasn't raining.  
"Good afternoon." the stranger greeted him, before asking, "Are you Kenneth Mitchkin?"  
"That'll be me, yep. Has my father done anything bad again? How much will it be to repair?"  
The stranger smiled and laughed to himself.  
"Oh no, I don't want money: could you just come with me? I need to show you something..."  
He then walked off, in the exact direction that he had come from. Wondering what the scottish man had wanted to show him, Kenneth ran after him, just as Rachel Hawthorne tripped over and landed in a bail of hay.  
What she needed now was someone to help her up. But because that someone had followed a strange man, she didn't get that someone.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor rushed over to the controls, whilst Kenneth stared in awe at the white roundels and the amazing space that was contained in a strange blue box.  
"This is remarkable," he said, "a white heaven. A scientific world within a magical blue box."  
"Yes Thomas, and you'll love this part."  
The time rotor rose and fell and the TARDIS wheezed away into the Time Vortex, making Thomas laugh with delight.

The Doctor was now alone at the controls. He had let his new passenger wonder the corridors of the ship, so that they could both have some time alone.  
"Now, that should stabilise the anomaly." he muttered to himself, before noticing another point in time which needed to be altered in order to fix the anomaly: Guildford, 1882. He sighed to himself, and set the co-ordinates.  
Time to alter history again, he thought to himself, as the TARDIS arrived in Guildford.

_Guildford, 1882._

Roger Parsons was sat in the church hall, praying. Like many people, he liked to pray for a while, to ease off the stress and to commune with God.  
His prayer was interrupted however, when a short scottish man came bundling in with someone who looked as if they worked in a farm.  
"I don't suppose you've finished?" the scottish stranger whispered to him, sitting down next to Roger.  
"I have now, yes. Who are you two, and what the blazes do you think you're doing?"  
"I'm the Doctor, and this is my friend Kenneth. I think you two may get along quite nicely together."  
Kenneth looked at Roger and smiled.  
"Fancy a drink at the pub?" Kenneth wondered.  
"Definitely." Roger agreed, before waving goodbye to the Doctor and walking out of the church.

The time parasite, now looking like a blue ghost hovering in mid-air, appeared in front of the Doctor, with an expression of pure rage on its face.  
"What have you done?!" it roared at him, with a deep voice.  
"I have used your own power against you. Your victims never existed, and so you never arrived here on Earth. You had no reason to. You just drifted through the vortex, for all eternity."  
"I will not let this occur!"  
"You're too late. Time is being set back on course. And any moment now Ace will reappear, as she never was killed."  
The church doors were flung open: Ace was stood in the doorway, with a smile on her face.  
"Doctor!" she yelled, pleased to see her friend once more.  
"That is what life is all about. Happiness, joy. Just because you are hungry does not give you the right to infect and use an innocent life as a banquet. I am the Doctor, and your game has ended, here and now!"  
The spirit vanished, and the two travellers shared a hug.

Everything was good again.

**THE END**


End file.
